“You can’t do that,” Char stated, the growl still in her voice, although at a lower intensity, the hatred still flaring in her light eyes. “You can’t make the men change their minds when they get so much enjoyment out of holding women as slaves. There isn’t a reason strong enough—”
“But there is,” Risdin interrupted, drawing that blazing gaze away from
Tain. “Did you miss hearing that the drug works on men as well as women, or did you simply refuse to believe? No matter how much a man enjoys having slaves, getting a taste of slavery himself will make him change his mind. And the best part is that we don’t have to do it to all men, just the ones who have enough power to outlaw slavery.”
“But all men deserve to be enslaved!” Char spat, her anger increasing rather than fading. “They’re all the same, all of them, and they deserve to be hurt just the way we were hurt! Don’t you understand—”
“Stop it!” Tain snapped, her tone sharp enough to startle the irate woman.
“It wasn’t all men who hurt you, so don’t waste our time trying to claim it was. By ending slavery we’ll hurt just the ones who do deserve your hatred, men who’ll remember how ‘good’ they had it before the change. When they find that no woman will do for them once she’s been freed they’ll suffer, but they’ll also have to be watched. Some of them could decide to force women back into slavery without the drug, and then they’ll be fair game. But only for someone who helped end slavery and became a free citizen again.”
Char’s beautiful face twisted with inner agitation, making Tain wonder if the woman was too far gone into her obsession for any sanity to be left.
There was no doubt that she’d been savaged more than once during her time as a slave, and all Tain could hope was that she’d been left enough … balance to let her achieve and enjoy actual freedom.
“Yes, if you can manage this then the ones like my owner will have to be watched,” Char muttered after a long hesitation, apparently talking to herself. “He’ll be one of those who tries to break the new law, and then I’ll be able to—Yes, I want it that way, and then I can stand there and laugh…”
“Now that that’s settled, let’s go and get all of you some coffee,” Risdin said to the others, all of them showing relief to one degree or another. Areen was there and so was Celene along with a third woman Tain didn’t know, and when Risdin touched Char’s arm to get her moving everyone followed. Char still seemed to be very involved with her thoughts, the smile on her face more than a little disturbing. Tain was about to go along with the others when there was a touch on her own arm.
“Tain, what’s wrong with her?” Ennie asked, nodding toward Char. The girl had been behind the other women, and Tain hadn’t seen her until the party began to move. Ennie also now wore a smock like the others, and her red armbands were gone. “Char was so … welcoming and warm when I was brought to her, but today… The closer we got to the tunnel the more she changed, and I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“I think it’s fear doing this to her,” Tain suggested after a moment’s thought, she and Ennie trailing along behind the others. “She’s trying not to admit to herself that she’s back in the town, but she knows well enough that she isn’t in her hideout any longer and she’s terrified. She shows fear by turning insanely angry, and if she can’t control herself I’ll have to have one or two of the others take her back out.”
“Is it true that the men were enslaved but you got them free?” Ennie asked, clearly changing a painful topic. “Why would you do something like that?”
“There are a couple of things I’m not able to tell you, but that doesn’t really matter now,” Tain said, her own anger soothed by the realization that she didn’t have to get around Killen’s orders not to tell Ennie that he worked for the department. All she had to do was order Killen himself to say what he’d forbidden Tain to talk about. “You’ll soon know what you need to, but what I can tell you is that both men are now under my control. Does that fact interest you in any way at all?”
“You know, I think it does,” Ennie answered slowly as she watched her feet, and then her gaze came up as she smiled. “I never thought of myself as a vengeful person, but maybe that was because I didn’t really have anything to get even for. Now that I do…”
“Most times getting even feels really good, but there are exceptions to just about every rule,” Tain commented, keeping her own expression bland as Ennie’s words trailed off into thoughtfulness. “While we’re walking, why don’t you think about whether or not you’d like to test the waters, so to speak? If you decide you’d like to give getting even a try, I can certainly oblige you.”
Ennie’s lips curved into a faint smile, but instead of speaking she just nodded. The girl looked better than she had, and Tain knew it would be interesting to see what her decision turned out to be.
Risdin and the others moved somewhat slowly ahead of Tain and Ennie, most of them engaged in soft-voiced conversation, so it took a little longer going back than it had coming out. When the larger group passed the men’s alcove everyone but Char glanced in at them, but no one stopped. They continued on until they reached the cooking alcove, and then they all disappeared inside. Ennie did a doubletake when she and Tain reached the men’s alcove, and the faint smile on her face widened just a bit. “I need to see if I can get something, and then I’ll be taking you up on your offer,” Ennie said as she paused and put a hand to Tain’s arm.
“Wait for me here, please.”
Tain nodded to show that she’d wait, then watched Ennie disappear into the cooking alcove before she turned to the two men who had come to the doorway of their area.
“You can’t give Ennie orders any longer, but I still don’t want either of you to even try,” Tain said to a curious Killen and a calm-faced Tandro. “She’ll be back in a minute, and when she returns, Tandro, you’ll obey everything she tells you to do. You, Killen, don’t have to obey her, but you also aren’t to interfere with her. You do, however, have to tell her what you didn’t let me talk about. Do both of you understand?”
The two men nodded, but their expressions had changed to ones that were almost identical. Both men were suddenly … concerned about what would happen, but neither looked actually worried. After all, Tain could almost see them thinking, it was Ennie they were talking about. What could a silly little girl do that would cause more than mild disturbance? Killen didn’t look happy about needing to tell Ennie something he hadn’t wanted her to know, but aside from that…
It wasn’t more than a couple of minutes before Ennie reappeared carrying a knife belt without the knife. It looked like she’d found the men’s possessions where they’d been put in the cooking room and had … borrowed one of those possessions. Tain suddenly knew exactly what Ennie meant to do, and was glad that the girl had chosen as well as she had. The belt wasn’t stiff or hard but it was leather, so it ought to do a fine job.
“Ennie, I do need to ask a favor before you get started,” Tain said softly, stopping the girl just short of the doorway into the alcove -out of sight of the men. “I’m going to need Tandro later, when he and Killen and I go out after our targets, so I’m afraid you’ll have to use a bit of restraint. Will you help me out with that?”
“Sure, Tain, glad to oblige,” Ennie answered with an amused smile.
“And don’t worry about me asking to go out with you three. I know I’m not up to something like that yet, so I’ll wait here with the others. And now I hope you’ll excuse me. I have some getting-even to do.”
Tain nodded and stepped back out of the way, making sure her surprise didn’t show on her face. Ennie had said she wasn’t up to rough stuff yet, a comment that was unexpected in two ways. The girl had admitted knowing she wasn’t properly trained, something she hadn’t done in the beginning, but apparently she meant to change that state of affairs. Later, she and Ennie would definitely have to sit down and talk.